Telinco chairman picks up £90m

E-ntrepreneur Chris Matthews has walked away with a cool £90 million from the sale of Telinco Networks to World Online. The founder and former chairman -- who started the company on just £16,000 -- is to invest the cash in a number of e-commerce ventures, led by his shopping portal, hoojit.com. It's likely his new company will even be named after the service and The Register understands he won't hang around too long before seeking to float the new venture. Matthews wasn't the only one at Telinco to make some cash out of the deal with World Online. Eight of the 60 employees at the Cheshire-based company became instant millionaires, although whether they'll remain in this elite club once the taxman has taken his slice is anyone's guess. What's more, everyone at the company received something from the deal -- which could explain why the car park at Telinco's offices are full of new shiny cars. News of the buy-out was announced last week. Although financial details weren't made public, some reports suggested that World Online paid between £250 million to £500 million for the telco. No one at Telinco was prepared to comment. ® Related stories:World Online lands on Freeserve's doorstepTelinco's free Net service is a sitting duck